Template:Efn

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Explanatory footnotes, or Efn, are footnotes that provide something other than, or more than, a reference to a source that supports the accompanying text. The first unnamed parameter is displayed as the content of the footnote.

Note: If the note's content contains an "=" character, a reference error will be displayed; precede the content with |1= (or one of its aliases, |text=, |reference=, or |content=) to fix the error.

The following explanation is transcluded from Help:Footnotes#Footnotes: predefined groups. There are several predefined groups that can have a reference list styled so that the label (a superscripted character within square brackets, e.g., ) of an explanatory note or citation (a.k.a. footnote, reference) matches and links to the note marker label located in the main text and the label in front of the note's text in the appropriate group's list. There can be more than one of these groups' lists in the Notes, References and other similarly purposed sections.

These predefined note and citation groups have templates that make the wikitext markup simpler. These templates also allow a standard reference to be inserted, so that an explanatory note can have a reference, or citations can be nested.

Note: If the note's text has a reference name that is used more than once, the labels will still match, but the clickable alpha characters (superscript lowercase letters like ^{a b c}) will be next to the note's label, with links to the multiple locations of its marker in the main text. See WP:REFNAME and the first point below in § Issues.

Template use by reference group type

Group type	Footnote marker template or markup	Reference list template	Sample labels
none by default, but optionally any	<ref>...</ref>	{{reflist}}	1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
	{{r}} (for nested references)
	{{refn}} (for nested references)
lower-alpha	{{efn}} {{efn-la}}	{{notelist}} {{notelist-la}}	a b c d e f g h i j
upper-alpha	{{efn-ua}}	{{notelist-ua}}	A B C D E F G H I J
lower-roman	{{efn-lr}}	{{notelist-lr}}	i ii iii iv v vi vii viii ix x
upper-roman	{{efn-ur}}	{{notelist-ur}}	I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX X
lower-greek	{{efn-lg}}	{{notelist-lg}}	α β γ δ ε ζ η θ ι κ
note	{{NoteTag}} {{efn-num}}	{{NoteFoot}} {{notelist-num}}	note 1 note 2 note 3

• {{efn}} supports |name=, which works the same as the parameter in <ref> (see, for instance, the 4th and 5th examples below). It also supports |group=, which functions similarly to the parameter of the same name in <ref> but accepts only 'lower-alpha', 'upper-alpha', 'lower-roman', 'upper-roman', 'lower-greek', or 'note'. Do not enclose values in quotes.
• {{notelist}} supports the |colwidth= and |refs= parameters, which work the same as the same parameters in {{reflist}}, and |group=, which works similarly to the parameter of the same name in {{efn}}. Do not enclose values in quotes.

In these examples, the footnote labels match between the footnote marker and the reference list:

With lower-alpha labels

Markup	Renders as
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet.{{efn|Footnote 1}} Consectetur adipisicing elit.{{efn|Footnote 2}} Sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.{{efn|Footnote 3}} {{notelist}}	Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet. Consectetur adipisicing elit. Sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.

With lower-roman labels

Markup	Renders as
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet.{{efn-lr|Footnote 1}} Consectetur adipisicing elit.{{efn-lr|Footnote 2}} Sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.{{efn-lr|Footnote 3}} {{notelist-lr}}	Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet. Consectetur adipisicing elit. Sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.

With |group= and multiple types

Markup	Renders as
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet.{{efn|group=lower-roman|Footnote 1}} Consectetur adipisicing elit.{{efn|lower-alpha|Footnote 2}} Sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.{{efn|group=lower-roman|Footnote 3}} Notes: {{notelist|group=lower-roman}} Refs: {{notelist|group=lower-alpha}}	Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet. Consectetur adipisicing elit. Sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Notes: Refs:

With named references

Markup	Renders as
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet.{{efn|name=fn1|Footnote 1}} Consectetur adipisicing elit.{{efn|Footnote 2}} Sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.{{efn|name=fn1}} {{notelist}}	Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet. Consectetur adipisicing elit. Sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.

Note: With named references you only need to add the details once. For each use after the first you just need to re-use the reference name. Doing this will not cause the inline superscript to display a custom name.

Named references can also be defined in the notelist

Markup	Renders as
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet.{{efn|name=fn1}} Consectetur adipisicing elit.{{efn|name=fn2}} Sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.{{efn|name=fn1}} {{notelist|refs= {{efn|name=fn1|Very long footnote 1}} {{efn|name=fn2|Very long footnote 2}} }}	Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet. Consectetur adipisicing elit. Sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.

Currently broken; see MediaWiki talk:Common.css § <references /> groups.

List-defined footnotes are incompatible with Visual Editor. {{notelist}} is a simply a wrapper for {{reflist}}, which is a wrapper for <references />. Explanatory footnotes can be used with the raw tag (which is compatible with Visual Editor) by specifying the correct group name, for example:

<references group="lower-alpha">
<ref name="name1">Content</ref>
<ref name="name2">Content</ref>
</references>

{{refwidth}} can be used to set column widths.

Issues

• Multiple backlink labels (see WP:REFNAME) are always styled as lower-alpha. This can be confusing when {{efn}} is used. See the note in the introduction of this section, above.
• The entries in the reference list will show the default decimal styling if:
  • The value for |group= in {{reflist}} or <references /> does not exactly match one of the predefined values; use {{efn}} or variant as |group= will not be needed.
  • The value for |group= in {{reflist}} or <references /> is enclosed by quotes; use {{efn}} or variant as |group= will not be needed.
  • {{reflist}} is indented with the : markup.
  • <references /> is used instead of {{reflist}}
• The entries in the reference list will have no styling if:
  • A reference is included in {{navbox}} or one of the variants and the style is set to bodyclass=hlist; to resolve this, replace the style with listclass=hlist.

Example articles

• Logic Theorist (a short article showing basic usage)
• Chinese room (a long and complex article which uses all the features: named footnotes, list defined notes, etc.)
• Empire of Brazil
• John Diefenbaker (with name= and notes in {{notes}})
• USS Monitor

TemplateData

This is the TemplateData for this template used by TemplateWizard, VisualEditor and other tools. See a monthly parameter usage report for Template:Efn in articles based on its TemplateData.

TemplateData for Efn

Inserts an explanatory footnote. Notes can be named and grouped.

Template parameters[Edit template data]

Parameter		Description	Type	Status
Note	1 reference text content	Text of the note	Content	suggested
Ref. name	name	Reference name of the note	String	optional
Reference group	group	Styled group to which the note belongs. Unrecognized values are treated as "lower-alpha". Suggested values upper-alpha lower-greek note lower-roman upper-roman Default lower-alpha	String	optional

See also

• Template:Cref - A manual system alternative

The above documentation is transcluded from Template:Efn/doc. (edit | history)
Editors can experiment in this template's sandbox (edit | diff) and testcases (edit) pages.
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